How Penelope is already two months, I don’t even know! I’ve been meaning to share my birth plan and her birth story with you guys for awhile now. So here you are!
My Birth Plan
I like to keep things simple. So my “plan” was get an epidural and let Jesus take the wheel.
After talking to all my mom friends and doctor, your baby’s birth is going to be what it is. So my personal attitude was why even invest time into something that’s out of your control? To each their own, but that was my approach and everything went according to plan 😉
Penelope’s Birth Story
I know not everyone’s delivery is smooth. And some labors are life threatening, like my friend’s, Nikki! But mine was a dreeeeeaam. Not ANYTHING like the movies. Given all the horrific stories I heard pregnant, I would have LOVED if someone told me an easy delivery was a possibility.
Here’s how ours went down.
An Unexpected Delivery
It was a Friday and had a routine pregnancy check up. I of course told Sean not to come either. They’re so uneventful. But after telling my doctor I hadn’t felt much movement the past 24 hours, she performed a stress test on baby R. If you remember, we didn’t find out if we were having a boy or girl!
After the test, my doctor expressed, despite everything looking okay, they typically like to see more activity at this point. Since baby R was fully baked at 39 weeks, they felt it wasn’t worth waiting it out and risking something bad happening. Although the choice was mine, I went with their professional recommendation to get induced!
Labor Timeline
Since there aren’t many exciting details, here’s a high overview to give you a sense of how easy and fast delivery went.
My doctor’s appointment was at 11 AM. I was induced at 2 PM. And Miss Penelope was born twelve hours later, at 1:58 AM. I pushed a total of 45 minutes! I’m not saying it felt amazing, but it was not bad AT ALL. If my recollection serves me well, we were joking with the nurses about flossing right before the final push. When the doctor told us it was a girl, we almost fell off our chairs!
Shortly after we settled into our post delivery room, we sent “Baby Girl Regan” to the nursery so we could get a whole, two hours of sleep. All of our parent friends who have a million children told us to 100% take advantage of the hospital nursery. So that we did. It was basically the only sleep we got that first week, so we are quite thankful for their advice.
It wasn’t until the next morning we finally decided on her name – Penelope! Sean changed her first diaper (get dad involved early ladies!) and it was a whirlwind of no sleep, trying to comprehend we had a baby and learning how to take care of this tiny human. Both of our families meet Penelope the next day and hands down the best part!
A Few Noteworthy Moments
- Penelope was born with a cone head. Unbeknownst to me, Sean was quite concerned the first ten minutes of her life. It wasn’t until he pulled a nurse aside he found out it was completely normal. I absolutely DIE over this! Bahahaha!
- Oh my word guys. We spelled Penelope’s name wrong on her birth certificate! Well almost. Her middle name is “Leigh” – a tribute to my mom’s middle name. However prior to filling out the birth certificate, we hadn’t discussed the spelling. So Sean told the nurse it was ‘Lee’. Luckily we figured it out thanks to a text chain he included me on! It was seriously a very close call.
- Lots of moms told me I’d get this overwhelming feeling of love once my baby was put on my chest. I however fell into the other camp of just feeling ‘overwhelmed’. I had this “survival mode” mentality to learn as much as I could. Don’t get me wrong, I loved her! But it took me a few days, if not weeks, for the flood of emotions to come. Now I love her so much it hurts my heart and almost can’t breath. And as cliche as it sounds, I love her more and more each day. It feels like Christmas EVERY SINGLE MORNING.
- The amount of gifts, notes, meals, visits, texts and well wishes we received after the birth of our daughter was and is STILL unbelievable! We are truly blessed to the point I didn’t even realize. So thank you from the bottom of my heart to all our families, friends and even you guys! It’s been two months and we’re still opening cards and gifts. P.S. I’m STILL working on thank you notes guys!
- P wore this gray top and pants home from the hospital courtesy of Monica & Andy! Their pieces and prints kill me! Which is why they’re the only newsletter I’m signed up for. Just so I don’t miss their newest print releases! Monica & Andy is where all the cool downtown Chicago moms shop and you can find their pieces at Nordstrom too.
- I sound like the worst mom ever, but for the sake of keeping it real, I was initially disappointed we didn’t have a boy. I didn’t realize how bad I wanted a boy till the doctor told us “it’s a girl!”. Now?! Oh my gosh, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
We are SO fortunate Penelope is here. I loved her before she even existed and to have a healthy baby is truly a gift. LIFE IS SO GOOD GUYS. It’s so good I’m scared. I hope this feeling never ends!
Also, be sure to check out Penelope’s neutral nursery and my favorite morning ritual with her!
Photos courtesy of Monica & Andy by Simply Suzy
{Penelope was just 1.5 weeks here!}
